Nutritional impact of the supplementary feeding programme on children

Thesis Overview

<p> INTRODUCTION<br>1.1 Background Information. Under nutrition is an underlying cause of 53% of all deaths in children younger than age 5 years (WHO, 2005). The prevalence of stunting (chronic under nutrition) has dropped world wide. In developing countries, stunting dropped from 47% in 1980 to 33% in 2000 (WHO, 2000), although progress has been uneven among regions. Stunting has increased in Eastern Africa, but decreased in South-eastern Asia, South-central Asia and South America. Northern Africa and the Caribbean show modest improvement while Western Africa and Central America present very little progress (WHO, 2005). Despite an overall decrease of stunting in developing countries, child malnutrition still remains a major public health problem in these countries. In some countries rates of stunting are rising, while in many others they remain unacceptably high (WHO, 2003). The pattern in Africa is quite distinct. The prevalence of stunting declined from 40.5% in 1980 to 35.2% in 2000, a decrease of only 0.3 percentage points per year (WHO, 2005). The highest level of stunting is found in Eastern Africa, where, on the average, 48% of preschool children are currently affected. In this region, stunting has been increasing at 0.1 percentage points per year. <br></p>